Marketing Plan Give-a-Way Contest for Small Businesses

Small business owners across the U.S. have the opportunity to win a comprehensive Strategic Marketing Plan for their business prepared by consulting firm, Strategic Growth Concepts of Southfield, MI. Strategic is sponsoring this national contest, being promoted primarily via Web 2.0 technology and social media, as part of their efforts in support of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s upcoming National Small Business Week celebration.

Contestants can enter the contest via Strategic’s website at www.StrategicGrowthConcepts.com where they complete an online entry form, including essays about their business and why a Marketing Plan will benefit their company. Contest entrants have the opportunity to win the grand prize, a Strategic Marketing Plan designed to help the firm effectively market themselves to prospective customers and achieve increased sales (approximate value $8,500), or one of five secondary prizes, 2 hours of small business consulting per winner (approximate value $470 per winner). Entries can be submitted thru April 30, 2009, with winners being announced during National Small Business Week, May 17 – 19, 2009.
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Strategic Growth Concepts is a Detroit-based firm that provides training and consulting services to start-up, small and mid-sized businesses in the areas of Start-up, Marketing, Operations, HR and Strategic Planning. The firm’s CEO, Linda Daichendt is a recognized business expert with 20+ years of corporate, small business and franchising experience. Linda can be contacted at linda@strategicgrowthconcepts.com , and the company website can be viewed at www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com.

Use History as a Guide to Grow Your Business

One question that seems to be most prominent when talking to small businesses, or reading the social networks, today is 'what should I be doing to market my business effectively in the down economy?'. There are a multitude of answers to this question, but the one I like the best is to keep functioning in business-as-usual mode with an added dose of aggressiveness when it comes to advertising/promoting your business. In today's Web 2.0 environment, that doesn't necessarily translate into spending more money, but it does mean you have to get more creative and aggressive with your promotional strategies.

However, as I've had discussions with a variety of small business owners on this topic, I find that they are not convinced. They are less than confident that increased marketing in today's economic environment is the right choice. In my state of frustration at not being able to convince them of the soundness of this strategy, I elected to find evidence to back me up. In the course of that evidence search I came across the article below which was published in iMedia Connection. If this well-written article doesn't convince a small business owner of the viability of self-promotion in today's economy, then, I'm certain I don't know what will. Please read the summary below and follow the link to the complete article, then let me know if you agree with me.
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Published in iMedia Connection: October 17, 2008
How brands thrived during the Great Depression
By Dave Chase

Companies can and do prosper during times of economic turmoil. Take a lesson from brands whose Depression-era advertising strategies were key to their survival.

To begin, not all was doom and gloom during the Great Depression. It was a time when those who knew what they were doing made great economic strides, and the very nature of the Depression was an economic boon for them. It was a time when several companies benefited from aggressive marketing while their rivals cut back. A good example of that would be Kellogg besting C.W. Post during that time. Consumers didn't stop spending during the Depression; most just looked for better deals, and the companies providing those better deals came out stronger after the Depression ended. When spending picked up, consumer loyalty to those companies remained.

Generally speaking, those companies that not only survived but also thrived during the Great Depression were those that continued to act as though there were nothing wrong and that the public had money to spend. In other words, they advertised. These are industries that didn't wait for public demand for their products to rise. They created that demand even during the most difficult of times.

The complete article can be found HERE.

No Time Marketing Truths: 10 Things to Remember That Will Improve Your Marketing Results

Adapted from "No Time Marketing: small business-sized steps in 30 minutes or less", By Alyssa Dver, www.NoTimeMarketing.com

1. Marketing is as much an art as it is a science. Plan, test, execute, and measure, but never be surprised by uncertainty and change.

In our eagerness to measure and declare return on investment for all marketing spends, we often forget that humans are unpredictable. As such, we can't always predict a market reaction or group think. Testing helps minimize the chances of this but historically it is like the weather. We can predict some things but often not with precise timing or impact. While we must embark on programs we feel have a high likelihood to generate results, don't be stuck doing what everyone else does. Can you be the Apple of your industry?

2. You usually need to bang on the same prospect door four or more times before someone answers. Make sure that you have the right address.

Be sure you have a target list and target profile that you are confident represents qualified leads BEFORE you spend money on any program. Just because you gave out 1000 pens at the tradeshow doesn't mean you have any real leads. Know who and why people will buy your products or service and not someone else's.

3. You are not your customer. Never assume you know them that well.

Just because you buy products or even buy your own product, never assume that you are a typical customer. Don't even assume there is such a thing as a "typical customer". There may be types of customers at best. Learn your customer demographics and psychographics. Once you "get" them, marketing "gets" much easier.

4. Restricted resources represent an opportunity to embrace creativity and revisit comfort.

Economic downturns force us to look within and find ways to improve productivity and reduce waste. It's hard to readjust the way we work but it's a great time update business processes and marketing assumptions. Use the opportunity to revitalize your perspective and take the lead away from dormant competitors.

5. Don't confuse prospect enthusiasm for purchase authority.

"I love your product" doesn't mean "I will buy your product" in any language. People will say nice things out of courtesy, lack of confidence, politics and for many other reasons that don't require them to take out their wallet. Asking prospects directly who and how purchase decisions are made could save you enormous efforts. If you just want perpetual positive feedback, get a dog.

6. Motivate don't manipulate.

Find reasons why people want to work at your company or buy your products such that it improves THEIR lives, not their company's. People don't do things usually unless they get something of clear personal value in return. Figure out what that is and then use that as your currency. How will your product or service make them look better at work or home? Will it increase their revenues or reduce their expense? Nothing else matters. Just ask Maslow.

7. Quality precedes quantity.

More leads and more sales may sound great but only if you can support and follow up with them. Damage to your reputation and costly repairs will be the result when customers or prospects are left hanging. When identifying leads, save your sales team the pain of sifting through hoards of simply breathing prospects and provide them a list of really qualified leads. This saves everyone – your sales people, the prospects and your marketing team - a ton of time, money and aggravation.

8. The best teachers are students.

Your best weapons are your ears. By listening more so you can understand other people's needs and desires. A defensive posture is never welcoming and it is incredibly attractive to your prospects when you are genuinely interested in what they have to say. Build your own bandwagon by inviting other opinions and input to gain buy-in and team membership. Exercise your intellect and creativity by asking questions, trying new technologies and reading a broad variety of information. An open mind closes more deals.

9. Confidence sells. BS smells.

Say to yourself: "What would Barack do?"

10. Spend only if you would be willing to pick up the tab.

It's easy to spend company money so next time you approve a marketing expense, think about it coming out of your own potential bonus or salary increase. While you do need to spend money to do marketing, make sure you are being responsible with assets that really are yours even though you don't balance that specific check book. Be responsible with your marketing spend as well as your impact on the earth and society. We all can make a difference.

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About the Author

Formerly a CMO for a public company, Dver now consults for companies ranging from large multinationals to small startups. In 2007, BusinessWeek recognized Dver as one of 8 female entrepreneurs to watch. She authored the well-endorsed books, "No Time Marketing" and previously, "Software Product Management Essentials". A featured columnist for Software Magazine, she has also been published in Forbes, BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur, Promo Magazine, and dozens of others. Ms. Dver regularly presents at venues including The World Diversity Leadership Summit at the UN, The Women's Congress, The American Marketing and American Banking Associations, and Strategic Management Institute. A graduate of Wharton Business School, she is currently working towards her PhD at the University of East London.

Survey Indicates CMOs Not Tracking Social Media Well. How About Your Company?

As most of you are likely aware, the use of Social Media Marketing is on a tremendous upswing today, particularly among small businesses that typically have minimal marketing budgets – and even less staff. This being the case, it seems prudent to provide information that small businesses can use to understand the pros and cons of using social media, as well as how best to effectively measure ROI to insure that monies available are put to the best use.

A recent article in Advertising Age reviews a study conducted by the CMO Council which indicates that companies overall are not yet doing an effective job of tracking the results and impact of social media. The article further discusses who in the corporate environment should be charged with this responsibility, as well as providing examples of how some of today's largest companies are beginning to implement social media tracking strategies. This article is shown in-full below.

Since the majority of people who will be reading this blog will likely be somewhat social-media-aware, I thought this would be a good audience to ask to review the article and then provide commentary on what your company is doing to insure the effective tracking of your social media strategies and the monies being spent on that endeavor – from a small business perspective. I would ask readers to provide Comments in this blog on the following questions in order to assist other small businesses who will read it and who have not yet addressed this issue:

• Do you currently have in place a social media tracking mechanism for your company? If so, please provide a brief description of your tracking methodology.
  
• Who in your organization (by title) is responsible for implementing/monitoring your tracking mechanisms?
  
• Are you measuring ROI as part of your tracking? If so, what is an appropriate social media ROI per your company?
  
• Please provide any additional input you believe to be relevant to the discussion
  

After reading the article below about social media tracking, you might have interest in going to the following link http://www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com/marketing/Marketing-Information-Resources_I12.html to learn the basics about An Introduction to Social Media Marketing and how to put it into effect.

Few CMOs Think They're Effectively Tracking Social Media, Word-of-Mouth

Survey: Marketing Execs, Not Other Departments, Should Be in Charge of Monitoring Customers' Conversations

by Jack Neff


Published:
January 26, 2009

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- Who in corporate America owns the consumer relationship, the customer experience, word-of-mouth or social media? The answer appears to be nobody.

For all the talk about listening to consumers, few marketers think their companies are doing so effectively and even fewer are monitoring what people say about their brands in social media, according to a new survey by the CMO Council.

The survey of 400 executives found that 56% said their companies have no programs to track or propagate positive word-of-mouth; 59% don't compensate any employees based on improvements in customer loyalty or satisfaction; and only 30% rated their companies highly in their ability to handle or resolve customer complaints.

Few have a system in place
Despite all the hype about social media, only 16% of respondents said their companies have any routine system in place for monitoring what people are saying about them or their brands online.

The survey comes, however, as big marketers are paying growing attention to monitoring and leveraging social media. Procter & Gamble Co. has a Social Media Lab that's about 18 months old, and Unilever last month hosted a word-of-mouth summit at its U.S. headquarters dedicated largely to understanding how social media affect its brands.

Another big marketer, Johnson & Johnson, became acutely aware of the trouble social media can cause when complaints on the micro blogging site Twitter led it to pull the plug on an ad campaign for Motrin in November.

One problem for marketing executives is that they're not clearly in charge now of managing the customer experience, customer loyalty or social media today, given that public-relations, sales, consumer-affairs and research-and-development departments all have a stake in those areas now.

Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, said marketing should take the lead in overseeing the customer experience and satisfaction. And he said addressing deficiencies in tracking and analyzing consumer feedback and buzz may be the key way CMOs can stake a claim to leadership.

Buck stops with CMO
"From our standpoint, if there's anybody who needs to be accountable for the customer experience, it's the CMO," Mr. Neale-May said. "Clearly what marketing needs to do to cover a lot of ground we've lost in the organization is more analytics, predictive modeling, and data integration and aggregation."

How three big package-goods marketers are addressing social media, however, shows just how varied functional ownership even of that aspect of the customer experience can be.

P&G's Social Media Lab has been led largely by corporate digital-marketing specialists. Unilever's word-of-mouth summit last month appeared to be spearheaded by market research. And J&J last fall appointed corporate-public-relations executive and part-time corporate blogger Marc Monseau to focus full time on social media, both monitoring how J&J is faring and reaching out to help exert corporate influence.

Regardless of who's in charge, the CMO Council survey suggests "companies generally still aren't very sophisticated at capturing or managing either positive or negative word-of-mouth," said Laura Brooks, VP-research for Satmetrix, the company behind the "Net Promoter Score" and a sponsor of the study. Aside from the leadership vacuum, she said corporate silos mean that disparate data streams are never brought together in a way that could help identify and solve problems.

But Pete Blackshaw, exec-VP of digital strategic services for Nielsen Online, isn't sure separation of duties is such a bad thing.

"You could argue that tension is positive," he said. "It's probably a good thing that the consumer-affairs department is freaked out that the digital-marketing team is doing listening. It's probably a good thing that the research team is kept on its toes by the social-media team."

Database problems
He also said marketers, even those with extensive customer-relationship-marketing programs, are hamstrung by databases that don't take into account the word-of-mouth potential of consumers by asking whether they blog, participate in social networks or post to message boards. One exception, he said, is beauty marketer Coty, which does ask consumers about some of those things.

On the social-media front, while Ted McConnell, P&G general manager for interactive marketing and innovation, generated controversy late last year with his dismissal of Facebook and other so-called consumer-generated media as places for P&G ads, the company remains intently focused on tracking and working with social media.

P&G's Social Media Lab has worked with 15 P&G brands and 70 external partners in an effort to better understand and leverage social media. Among the more interesting projects has been working with Ripple6, acquired last year by Gannett, to develop tools for monitoring social-media buzz and building online communities. Among other things, Ripple6 is helping P&G Productions' soap opera "The Guiding Light" develop a new online community.

To be sure, wherever there's consumer data, P&G will try to mine it.

"Aside from technology, it's almost been a natural thing for P&G to [listen to consumers]," said Stan Joosten, innovation manager-holistic consumer communication. "What technology does for us is truly extend what we can do. For the first time ever with this technology, conversations are visible to us. ... You cannot start in social media without knowing how to listen."

The Small Business State of Your State

For those of you interested in working with other small businesses in some capacity, or needing small business knowledge to help with the development of a business and/or marketing plan, some very useful information has recently been issued by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The data is provided in a national and state-by-state format. A brief overview of the report is shown below. Click on the "compiled data" link and it will take you to a PDF document which provides you with that state-by-state information. Additionally, the links at the bottom of the article will take you to additional small business resources that may be helpful to you.

The Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy has compiled data for each U.S. state and territory, giving an excellent snapshot of each region's small business activity (in 2006, the most recent year for which data is available).

For example, California had 718,220 small businesses in 2006 and created 87.6 percent of the state's net new jobs from 2004 to 2005. (The SBA defines small businesses as employing fewer than 500 people.)

The health care and social assistance industry was Louisiana's largest small business employer in 2006, while the construction industry was Virginia and Maryland's biggest small business employer that year.

The report pulls together information on each region's number of firms, demographics of business ownership, small business income, banking, business turnover, industry composition and employment gains and losses by business size.

It's worth a visit to check out that status of small business in your state.

By Sharon McLoone, The Washington Post January 27, 2009; 8:00 AM ET Data Points
Small Business Resources

eMarketer’s Predictions for 2009 Online Spending

I read a very interesting article today from eMarketer regarding their predictions for 2009 online spending. The article examines trends in various online advertising strategies such as search, video, display, lead generation, and email. It also examines the viability of targeting demographic segments by age and cultural diversity in online advertising. Lastly, it examines online purchasing trends in retail, and expected trends in eCommerce on social networks. Some of the information contained within the reports may surprise you.

For those that are working on final revisions of their 2009 marketing plans, this article can be helpful in guiding you in your decisions regarding your online strategies and budget allocations. For those that have either concluded your planning for 2009 or don't yet have extensive knowledge on web strategies, this article can serve as a good overview to insure that you have basic knowledge on trends in this channel.

The link to the article follows: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006813

After reading the article, I would be interested in seeing comments from you which identify your thoughts regarding the article's content and/or any resulting changes you may initiate in your 2009 Marketing Plans as a result of this information.